A Researcher's Perspective on Current Events

January 05, 2010

Vegging Out for the New Year

We are 5 days into 2010 and I, like millions of Americans, made a resolution to eat more healthfully this year…but how to go about doing this is the real question.

Following some investigation that included watching Food, Inc., and reading Michael Pollen’s In Defense of Food, my NYR (New Year’s Rez) is to only eat real foods and eliminate processed junk from my diet completely (though at 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, I was practically shoving as many Doritos in my mouth as humanly possible).

In addition, one of the main points of healthful eating I’ve come across again and again in my research, should be no surprise to anyone: we need to eat more plants and consume fewer animal products. And, like many Americans, I am in desperate need to amp up my fruit and vegetable intake (and NO, the ketchup on my street vendor hot dog will no longer count as one of my daily vegetable servings).

According to a study Harris conducted back in May 2009 for the Vegetarian Resource Group, 8% of Americans said they never eat meat and 3% indicated they never eat meat, poultry or seafood, classifying the latter folks as vegetarians. About 1% say they are vegans, indicating they don’t eat ANY type of animal product, including meat, dairy, eggs, poultry, seafood or honey (….really? We’re grouping honey in with the other animal products? Learn something new every day!).

So, should we all be transitioning to completely vegetarian/vegan diets to live more healthfully? Or should we just be making sure the animal products we eat were raised and produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way (i.e., not industrialized and processed the way most are now)?

As the popularity for cruelty-free and sustainably raised animal products increases in the future (as I likely suspect it will) I will be interested in seeing if the number of vegetarians rises or falls...I suppose what I mean is: how many vegetarians currently maintain the diet they do because they don't like the way animals are raised for industrial food? And if more meat and dairy turn grass fed and organic, are vegetarians likely to begin re-incorporating these foods into their diets?

And going back to processed foods vs. real foods, do you think vegetarians are likely to eat more "real foods" than omnivores or, perhaps, do they eat even MORE processed foods…just processed foods that are sans meat?

Comments

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Hi Whitney, as a vegan 1-percenter, this is an issue close to my heart!

In my opinion, if we moved away from factory farming I wouldn’t suspect the number of vegans/vegetarians would decrease. For some vegans/vegetarians , it’s a health issue. Meat (and that includes poultry and fish) can have a lot of deleterious health effects, and a few studies show that red meat consumption actually shortens your lifespan, putting you at higher risk for heart disease, stroke, hypertension, etc. The health value of beef doesn’t improve much regardless of how the animal was treated. One exception would be that hormone-free and antibiotic-free meat may be less bad, but wont improve your chances of avoiding cardiovascular disease.

I’ve noticed the other big reason people go vegan/vegetarian has to do with animal welfare. Many could argue that life in a factory farm is only part of the suffering—the slaughtering process is also wrought with problems. (If you have a strong stomach and don’t mind being horrified, watch “Meet your Meat”). So even if the animal lived a life in a field eating grass, they’re still destined for slaughter and many vegans/vegetarians aren’t OK with killing an animal if they can be healthy and happy eating vegetables instead. Dairy farms aren’t much kinder.

There are definitely dissenting opinions to both of the two reasons. Some may argue about the validity of the studies showing meat and dairy products being less healthful for you. And others may claim that that slaughtering mishaps are much less common and animals are content on a traditional (not factory) farm. They have valid points too, but for myself I find the arguments in favor of vegan lifestyles to be more compelling. (Oh, and I eat honey, that issue is a whole other story…)

By being a vegetarian or vegan you’re not eating well by default—Doritos and ice cream are vegetarian. I have personally seen a few people try to go vegetarian but fail to eat a healthful diet. It does take some work at the beginning to figure out what you like to eat and how to balance your diet but if you’re willing to cook more often and be annoyingly picky at restaurants, it gets to be very easy.

Good luck with your NYR! If you need some inspiration for vegetable-packed meals, check out the recipes on www.vegweb.com , that’s my favorite resource.

How did I just notice this comment?? Thanks so much, Angela! So far the NYR is going pretty well, minus my Ghiradeli boxed brownie the other day.

Love the vegweb.com resource! Very helpful.

I think a lot of people would agree with you re: slaughtering animals, even if they lived a grass-fed lifestyle, so I respect your views on it. It sounds like you would be a vegan regardless of the animal's treatment. I guess I just wonder if other vegetarians/vegans feel the same way.

Whitney I'm glad your NYR is going well. And I cant say no to brownies either so dont worry :)

It would be interesting to see if other vegetarians/vegans would feel the same about their lifestyle if animals were truly free-range.

Regarding my organic diet, it would be hard to say. I actually don't seek out organic food. To me it's just too expensive to justify the purchase. I do grow a small veggie garden every year and that is organic. Our local grocery chain, Wegman's, has a lot of organic house-brand products that are competitively priced, so I will get those items as I need them. Aside from that, I try harder to eat local than to eat organic. Up here in western NY, we have a really short growing season so that's quite difficult! I just try to do my best within my means.